Wrestling shows (AEW/IMPACT/NWA/ROH and others)

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AEW Dark starts off with a tribute to Memphis wrestling. In the ring are Handsome Jimmy Valiant, Kevin Lawler (standing in for the late Grandmaster Sexay), Lanny Poffo, Austin Idol, the Rock and Roll Express, commentator Dave Brown, Shane Russell (Lance Russell's son), Doug Gilbert (Eddie's Brother, and a wrestler himself). They did a 10 bell salute for those no longer with us (Tommy & Eddie Gilbert, Lance Russell, Angelo Poffo & Randy Savage, and Brian Christopher). The crowd was very enthusiastic for this segment. Dave Brown then joined Excalibur for the play by play.

First up is Darby Allin vs Brandon Cutler. Love Cutlers titantron video, with dragon holding a big D20. Darby was wearing denim shorts, with what looked like black nylons underneath (which made him look a little more goth than usual). Cutler hit a moonsault from the top onto a standing Allin, and it looked like his knee hit Allin in the forehead!

Nyla Rose and Shanna were supposed to have a match, but Shanna jumped Nyla at the top of the ramp pre-match. This turned into a nice brawl that saw Shanna spear Nyla off the apron through a table! No official match, and backstage, Nyla attacked Shanna, started to talk smack, but Shanna struck back. I like how they'll building up this feud. Rose is the bully, and Shanna is the smaller wrestler who refuses to be intimidated.

The main event was the second meeting between Shawn Spears (teaming with Peter Avalon) and The Gunn Club (Billy and his son Austin). Austin looks like his dad, and even sounds a bit like him when he talks. Not sure it was main event material myself, but it was an ok match.
 
Found this on the AEW youtube channel. SCU went to OWE in Shanghai, China, and took 3 of the homegrown talent of OWE. The first guy to come out is Achilles Ben, the Ace of OWE. I wish they could get him over to wrestle in AEW. I think he could easily get over with the crowd. Also, Daniels addressing the crowd in Chinese was cool.. I think I'll start posting more matches and such, so I cover more than AEW, NXT and NWA

 
Got a bit bummed yesterday when I found out that Mercedes Martinez is with NXT now. I mean, it's probably good for her, professionally, but NXT contracts are usually exclusive, right? So I probably won't be seeing her perform at Chicago-area indie shows anymore. :sad:
 
E-Rocker said:
Got a bit bummed yesterday when I found out that Mercedes Martinez is with NXT now. I mean, it's probably good for her, professionally, but NXT contracts are usually exclusive, right? So I probably won't be seeing her perform at Chicago-area indie shows anymore. :sad:
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I'm surprised she wasn't signed after the first Mae Young classic. She was so over with the crowd for that, and her match with Baszler was one of the better matches on the card.

Given her age, I wonder if she's actually going to join Sara Amato as a trainer. The things both of them could teach will just make the women's division that much stronger imho
 
urbwar said:
Warner Media renews AEW through 2023, and orders a second series
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A follow up on the second show. Looks like AEW Dark is going to leave Yotube, possibly rebranded (ie new name), and have more content (backstage stuff, mini-docs, etc). No schedule yet, but this looks like the plan. They won't be replacing Dark on their Youtube channel, but not having original content similar to Dark is still an option. The Warner rep said they might post matches not aired on on Dynamite or the to be renamed Dark. It makes sense, as now Dark will become a full show, and hopefully more wrestlers will get air time more often, and they can hopefully push more storylines each week. It's a win - win for AEW fans and the wrestlers if they do it right
 
This week I'm watching AEW Dark first. It's less than 30 minutes, as its only 2 matches. Diamante has joined Santana & Ortiz in AEW now, and takes on Big Swole. Diamante went for the three amigos, and then mocked the crowd with Konnan's phrase. Diamante grabbed some sandals from under the ring. The ref made her give up one, but the other was hidden in her tights behind her back. She got in some shots before Swole was able to duck under, and put Diamante in an Abdominal Stretch (haven't seen one of those in awhile). Some nice exchanges of spin kicks too. I've never seen Diamante wrestle before, but she performed fairly well.

The other match was Stronghearts vs Jurassic Express. I love Stronghearts, as I think Lindaman and T-Hawk are very under rated competitors. Funny moment was Marko trying to get in T-Hawk;s face, and Hawk pushed him to his corner to tag in Lindaman (who is only somewhat taller than Marko!). Marko took a triple dropkick at one point, which was kind of cool. This was a better match than the women's match.

I'm kind of bummed they've only been doing close to 30 minutes with Dark the past few episodes. Less tv time for more of the roster by cutting the matches from 4 to 2. Now on to Powerrr
 
Powerr is the last one before Hard Times. In a rematch from Into the Fire. Thunder Rosa (who is really over with the crowd, even if she's a heel) vs Tasha Steelz. Good, but somewhat short match. In the final tv title tournament match, Tom Latimer took on Trevor Murdoch. There was an interview with Royce Issacs, and Nick Aldis had a pre-taped segment where he tells Marty Scurril he is going to be part of their upcoming ppv that is free for anyone attending (He's teaming with Rush against Scurril and PCO)

Melina tells Allisin Kay she is going to face Thunder Rosa for the title at Hard Times, but first she has to get past Marti Belle in a no dq match. That was a nice brawl. We get a video package of the events leading to the title match tonight, where Ricky Morton challenges Nick Aldis. Pope is out with Eddie Kingston for an interview. David Marquez asks him about Outlaw Inc's loss last week. Eddie and Marquez got into it a bit, then Eddie says maybe Pope pushed them into the match before they were ready, but its still their fault for taking the match. When asked about the last chance gauntlet to earn the last spot in the tv title tournament, Kingston says he's not going to be part of it.

Stevens is out for a Karate Demonstration, while Question and two masked students enter the ring. One has the Mongrovian flag. This is hilarious, as Stevens explains what QM is doing in the ring. At the end, Stevens was going to break a board, but one of the students turns out to be Ricky Starks, and he blasts Stevens with the wood!

CW Anderson, Caleb Konley, Jocephus, Colt Cabana, Dave Dawson, Aron Stevens, Sal Rinauro & Ken Anderson are in the gauntlet. Zicky Dice comes out to talk trash to the people in the gauntlet, stopping the match for a bit. Colt & Anderson worked together. QM came out at one point to distract people for Stevens (which backfired of course!). It was a fun match, and a good lead in to the main event.

Eli Drake and James Storm are out, and Marquez wants to know what they think Morton's chances against Aldis. Both men sell Morton and trash talk Aldis. Fun segment. A news segment follows, announcing the two outside wrestlers, as Matt Cross will face Ricky Starks, and Dan Maff takes on Zicky Dice. They also get a promo from Flip Gordon, who will face Aldis at Hard Times. It's also mentioned that Stevens will defend his National title vs Scott Steiner, and if Morton beats Aldis, he will defend the title at Hard Times. If he doesn't, the Rock-N-Roll Express will defend the tag titles against Wild Cards and Drake & Storm in a 3 way match.

When the main event came around. Billy Corigan was at the commentator table. He decides to ban all seconds from ringside. Good call, as Wild Cards & Kamille were with Aldis, while Morton just has Robert Gibson with him. Aldis was ticked, but Gibson left without any complaints. They wrestled a slow paced match (given Morton's age, they really needed to). Morton looked good for a man his age.

At the end of the match, the video was hijacked by none other than Marty Scurril, who sent a message to Aldis that he'd seem him Friday.

As I posted previously, Into the Fire was a let down for me. Most of the matches didn't feel ppv quality to me. Hard Times is looking to be a better card. Thanks to Scurril staying with RoH, and now having responsibilities as a booker and dealing with other promotions like NJPW and NWA (and they want him to build one with AEW, if the scuttlebutt is true), we're going to see more NWA/RoH crossovers like we're getting now. This is going to help both promotions imho
 
Dynamite takes place on Jericho's Rock & Rager cruise. The show starts with Omege & Page vs SCU for the tag titles. Given the men involved, it was a good match. I should have liked it more, but I felt something was off about it.

Britt Baker took on Priscilla Kelly. I'm not a big fan of Kelly, so I wasn't giving it my full attention. A post match attempt at an interview with Baker by Tony led to Baker taking the mike from him, and then run him down for working at Starbucks before he came back to wrestling. She then started talking about herself, but JR called for a commercial break during her promo. Given that AEW has a lot of good faces in Shida, Statlander, Swole and Riho, The need a strong heel. Their best one is Kong, but she rarely wrestles, so they need another one. This first step was kind of lame imho though.

Jericho and Proud & Powerful took on Jurassic Express. Decent trios match. Marko Stunt looked good here, hitting a sweet 450 on Jericho, then rolling up him for a second pin attempt. Before the match was a great feature on Jungle Boy. Its obvious he's one of their stars in the making

A recap about the stipulations for Cody vs MJF was replayed before MJF came out to face Joey Janela. He made Excalibur and some fans at ringside kiss his ring. He even made Justin Roberts kiss it! MJF is the perfect heel. This guy has a bright future ahead of him. In a few years, I could see him being a top star in WWE. Jesus was also back for this match, blessing Janela just like he did during the Christmas episode where Janela beat Shawn Spears. This was a good match. MJF got the advantage early on, and worked a slow pace. He alternated with submissions and working Janela's leg. These two have good chemistry, so I hope they let Janela get more wins and move up a bit. He's mostly been used to build up others (look at his great matches against Moxley and Omega)

Kip Sabian came out with Penelope Ford (Janela's real life ex-gf), and distracted him. You know MJF was going to win, but it was nice to see Janela's storyline cross over into MJF's. MJF did a post match interview. Cody came out and MJF reminded him that Cody can't touch him. He tried to goad Cody into hitting him, but the Bucks came out and superkicked MJF, then they threw him into the pool. That was an amusing segment that only worked because Wardlow was not there (he was supposedly training for his cage match with Cody next month). They should a clip of the entire cruise, and I saw Fluffy!

Tony interviewed Omega & Page. He asks Omega about PAC, and he says he will get his rubber match. The Bucks show up, and Page insults them before walking off. I like where this is going with Page. He is still friends with Omega, but he doesn't seem to like Cody & the Bucks.

3 matches announced for next week. Jericho and Proud & Powerful take on Darby Allin and Private Party. The Bucks face Butcher and the Blade, and Cody takes on Kip Sabian. Jericho comes out to watch the match between Moxley and PAC to determine the new #1 contender. Jericho and JR are cool, but Jericho calls Excalibur "mumblemouth".

PAC has a video package prior to the match. Like MJF, I think he's one of the top heels in AEW. Ever since he went heel in WWE, his career has been revitalized.

PAC focused on Moxley's eye (as expected). The match went up into the balcony area at one point. Everytime Moxley would take control, PAC would target the bad eye and regain control. Moxley sold the eye injury well. Jericho would berate Mox every so often, which was amusing. This match wasn't as good as Janela/MJF, but that's ok. It was telling a story.

I thought this show was so-so. I'm more excited for NXT this week now. It seems the last 2 or 3 weeks, NXT has had better matches overall, but AEW still wins the ratings each week. On the bright side, rumor has it the WWE locker room is happy, as WWE is now offering more money on new contracts, and are offering more time off. So if anything AEW has made things better for not just their own roster, but for the WWE roster as well. About time too

So AEW posted this match between Rey Fenix and Joey Janela. It was filmed at Bash at the Beach, so why it wasn't on Dark is something I wonder about. This is another good match, and I wish it had been on Dynamite. Fenix did some fun heel moves (he faked out a right hand, Janela covered up, then Fenix hit an eye poke when Janela looked up. Janela did a corkscrew package piledriver that was Figured people might not know about it, so I decided to post it here. Enjoy!

 
Supposedly Fenix suffered some injuries as a result from that match. I don't know if that was a factor on why they didn't show it as part of Dark, maybe they wanted a little extra time to edit it.
 
Also, was anyone else experiencing the sound going in and out during the Pac/Moxley match?
 
Tulpa Girl said:
Supposedly Fenix suffered some injuries as a result from that match. I don't know if that was a factor on why they didn't show it as part of Dark, maybe they wanted a little extra time to edit it.
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I was unaware of that. Hope he's not hurt too bad.
 
I love Fenix to pieces, but his style is incredibly brutal on his body and doesn't leave much room for error. As La Parka showed, even experienced performers can make a mistake sometimes.
 
Ladybird said:
I love Fenix to pieces, but his style is incredibly brutal on his body and doesn't leave much room for error. As La Parka showed, even experienced performers can make a mistake sometimes.
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Yeah, it says something when Joey 'please don't die' Janela is the one least likely to do grievous, long-term damage to his body in a match.
 
On to NXT. We start off with Undisputed Era vs Grizzled Young Veterans. This match to me was better than SCU vs Omega & Page. Both teams are heels, and they pulled out all the stops. Imperium showed up but didn't interfere, which was a nice touch. The finals for the Dusty Rhodes tournament is halfway set now.

Toni Storm took on Io Shirai. Good match, but it could have been better if not for the storyline it helped push. Bianca Belair attacked both of them before Ripley came out. She and Belair brawled a bit, before Shirai took them both out with a moonsault. Storm dived onto Shirai, went back in the ring, and held up the title. She got massive boos! She faces Ripley Saturday at Worlds Collide, while Belair faces Ripley (or Storm if she should win) at Takeover Portland. I kind of wish Storm was facing Ripley at Takeover, but that's only cause I'm going to that show.

Imperium took on the new team of the Broserweights. Dunne & Riddle couldn't be a more odd couple, but their styles compliment each other. They even appear to have matching ring gear. Another hard hitting match, and surprisingly no cheating or interference on Imperium's part. WALTER & Wolfe were close by the whole match, but didn't interject. This was even better than UE vs GYV.

A great post match promo showdown between the two final teams.

Matches not shown on USA was Finn Balor vs Joaquin Wilde (formerly DJZ in TNA) and Shayna Baszler took on Shotzi Blackheart.

In the Main Event, Keith Lee finally gets his shot at Roderick Strong for the North American title. I haven't seen much of Lee before he joined WWE, but he's become one of my favorites. Strong started of repeatedly trying for the ankle UE attacked last week, but Lee kept using his power to stop him. Unlike Imperium, UE had no problems interjecting themselves to turn the tide in Roddy's favor. As he's been doing a lot, Lee hit a pounce, taking out the tag champs when Roddy went over the top rope from the impact. There's a reason CM Punk said on Backstage that he thinks Lee should win the Royal Rumble this year.

Post match, Imperium and UE had a brawl. Cole kicked WALTER in the head, but he caught a superkick attempt, and nailed Cole with the sickest chop I've seen in a long time. Cole did a 180! A fun end to the show. They've done a good job building up Worlds Collide. Between that and Hard Times, there's going to be a lot of good wrestling this weekend
 
World Collide was Saturday, but I only started to watch it tonight. The pre-show saw Mia Yim take on Kay Lee Ray for the NXT UK Championship (The NXT titles no longer specify women in the title names anymore). I'm not a big fan of Ray, but she impressed me in this match. I'm a fan of Mia Yim (I had the pleasure of meeting her at a show that was part of Jerry Lynn's retirement tour), and she's pretty awesome.

The main show started off with a bang, as Finn Balor face Ilja Dragunov. I've only seen clips of Dragunov before, but he proved a good match for Finn. The crowd was behind Finn most of the match, showing that in NXT, being a heel doesn't mean you always get booed.

Following that was a cruiserweight title four way with champ Angel Garza defending against Travis Banks & Jordan Devlin of NXT UK, and Isiah Scott from NXT. It was a great match, as all 3 pulled out all the stops. A funny spot early on was when all 3 challengers super kicked the champ as he went to pull off his pants.

One of the most anticipated matches of the show was the tag team match between former champions, DIY (reuniting for one night) and Mustache Mountain (also former tag champions), the best team in NXT UK. With both members of DIY having been former NXT champions, and Bate was the first ever UK champion, you have a Takeover main event level match here. Both teams are fan favorites, so the crowd was split between both teams. Lots of great chain wrestling, and both sides kept things pretty fair & clean until Bate went for his fakeout punch on Ciampa, who didn't fall for it. DIY ramped it up at that point, showing their time as singles wrestlers hadn't dulled their tag team cohesion. Both teams got to showcase their stuff, and there were many pinfall attempts. Bate got to showcase his strength a few times. Needless to say, I think it's an early match of the year candidate.

Dakota Kai was in the crowd, and Teagan Nox attacked her from behind! They got pulled apart, and the crowd chanted to let them fight. This lead into the NXT title match between Toni Storm & Rhea Ripley. Bianca Belair was shown in the crowd. These two know each other so well, so they can always put on a good match. I don't think it was as good as their matches in NXT UK, but this match had a different dynamic (as both of them are "good guys" in NXT, though Ripley is more popular due to dethroning Baslzer for the title).

Post match, Balor attacked Gargano while he was giving an interview. Mustache Mountain showed up, with Tyler Bate pulling Balor off Gargano and having words with him. Given Bate's recent feud with Balor's protege Jordan Devlin, I would love to see Balor & Bate go at it one on one. Hell, if Finn & Jordan were to team up against Mustache Mountain, I'd be happy. Balor & Gargano meet next month at Takeover, but that doesn't mean this couldn't lead to something.

That main event was a war between the top factions in each branch of NXT Undisputed Era and Imperium went to war. Early on, Alexander Wolfe was legitimately knocked out by a kick from Bobby Fish, and was removed from the match. With a 4 on 3 advantage, UE took the fight . to Imperium until Walter took control. Kyle O'Reily was in trouble for some time, before finally tagging in Strong. Strong went toe to toe with Walter for a couple of minutes, but Walter is bigger & stronger, and that made the difference.

UE ganged up on Walter, but he turned it around on them (with the fans fully behind him), but UE's numbers were too much. He was out of action for awhile, leaving Aichner & Barthel to fight off all 4 members of UE by themselves. For awhile they took it to UE, especially Barthel. Walter made a big comeback, and chopped the hell out of UE. Much like the DIY/Mustache Mountain match, all 7 men were pretty tired, but they still went into a full on brawl one more time. Needless to say, the ending came out of nowhere, and was a great ending to a hard fought match. Definitely another match of the year candidate. Can't wait to see the fallout from this show!

Hopefully tomorrow, I'll check out NWA Hard Times.
 
Tulpa Girl said:
Also, was anyone else experiencing the sound going in and out during the Pac/Moxley match?
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I don't recall that.

Overall, I found the sound mixing on the boat to be much better than in their arena shows. This was the first episode where I've actually been able to hear the lyrics of the various theme songs.
 
E-Rocker said:
I don't recall that.

Overall, I found the sound mixing on the boat to be much better than in their arena shows. This was the first episode where I've actually been able to hear the lyrics of the various theme songs.
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There are some utter bangers in there! They have most of them on AEW's spotify page.
 
NWA Hard times starts off with more of the TV title tournament. like before, these matches have a 6:05 time limit. The rest of my post will be spoiler text, for those who don't want to know results before seeing it (if you haven't, but planned to)

Question Mark & Trevor Murdoch start things off. QM actually hit a missile dropkick off the top rope in this one, which was cool. Murdoch hit two top rope bulldogs to end QM's undefeated streak. Ring of Honor's Dan Maff (a favorite of mine from the NJ independent scene) took on Zicky Dice next. I can't stand Dice, so I was glad he had to face the "Boriqua Beast". Everytime Dice had control, Maff would over power him. Dice tried his best, but Maff was too much. Maff & Murdoch is set for the semi-finals.

Matt Cross from RoH faced Ricky Starks in the first quarter final from the other block. Cross dominated the match until he missed a shooting star press, allowing Starks to hit a double underhook facebuster for the win. Tim Storm vs Ken Anderson was next, but Anderson was not there (word was he was not medically cleared to compete). Storm did a promo where he said while he relished a fight with Anderson, he was going to take the bye and move on to face Starks

Bennett goes on to announce that the next ppv will be in April, and will be the Crocket Cup!

Wild Cards vs R-N-R Express vs Drake & Storm for the tag titles are next. R-N-R and Drake & Storm would join forces against Wild Cards, then wrestle each other when Wild Cards were down. Gibson was out on the floor after being posted, so for awhile it was just Wild Cards vs Drake Storm. Gibson made it back in, only for Royce Issacs to clothesline him down. Morton tagged in, and hit a Canadian Destroyer on Latimer! Issacs stopped Morton from hitting a second one, and Drake got Morton with his finisher, and new tag team champs! Wild Cards left while the two other teams shook hands. Storm actually laid his belt at Mortons feet and bowed down in front of him in respect. The new champs cut a a fun promo, joking about what they should call themselves (Drinking Buddies and Bottoms Up were two of the ones thrown out there), but no matter what, you better call them champs!

After a brief recap about Allysin Kay's issues with Melina & company, we have the women's title match. Thunder Rosa out first, and the crowd really likes her. They start to brawl as soon as the bell rings, and Kay got the upper hand. Given how dominant she's been, it was a surprise seeing Rosa manhandled this much. She finally turned things around , and started using her MMA skills to pummel Kay. The crowd started getting behind Rosa more. Rosa started to focus on Kay's left arm, alternating between strikes on it and submissions. Kay made a short comeback, and momentum would switch between the two. Rosa kicked out the AK 47, and they brawled again, then Rosa hit a powervbomb from the second rope. Kay posted her left arm but survived a submission hold, only to fall to the Thunder Driver. The crowd went nuts cheering for her. I really liked this match. For the most part, they worked a slow pace, and only hit a few flashy moves. Marti Belle and Melina came out, hugging Rosa. Considering they're the "bad guys", the crowd was really behind Rosa. it was a hard hitting match, with both women fighting clean. I was impressed that they pulled off a great match without the need to make it a spot fest.

Marty Scurrill is out for an interview. He calls out Aldis for ducking him, and for not defending the title against Flip Gordon. Aldis is out, looking shocked as the crowd calls him coward. Aldis says he'll defend the gold, but if he wins, everything is on his terms with RoH. More importantly, Scurrill has to leave the building. Scurrill leaves, and we're onto the semi-finals of the tv title tournament!

Maff vs Murdoch. To quote JR, it was a slobberknocker! They stood toe to toe slugging it out in the middle of the ring. Murdoch had Maff backed into the corner, whipped him across the ring, but Maff speared him as he charged in. Maff worked over Murdoch's arm (which I missed getting hurt in his match with Question Mark), then started biting him. The crowd turned on Maff after that, and got solidly behind Murdoch. Maff made a mistake, Murdoch hit the top rope bulldog, and he's going to the finals!

Starks took on a fresh Tim Storm in the other semi-final. Needless to say, Storm had the size and strength advantage over Starks. Starks early offense was countered by Storm's strength. Storm's simple but effective offense had Starks on the ropes. Whenever Starks would get momentum, Storm would stop him. In the end, Starks won via a crucifix cradle, making the finals Murdoch vs Starks! Both men shook hands and hugged before heading to the back.

Aron Stevens defended the National title vs Scott Steiner. Question Mark was in his corner. Steiner obviously dominated, with Stevens taking a beating most of the match. He almost got Steiner once with a foot to the face, but Steiner got him in the recliner, only to have Question Mark interfere and end up in the recliner himself! Stevens grabbed the belt and ran, leaving QM to suffer. This match was just boring. Every time I see Steiner, he always just beats up his opponents, not letting them get in any offense.

Flip Gordon and Nick Aldis out next for their NWA title match. It's not the main event, which seems weird for an NWA event. Flip had the advantage early, but Aldis avoided the Star Spangled Stunner. The referee showed bias, preventing flip from diving outside the ring at Aldis. The ref then was talking to the champ through the ropes, and Flip leapt over him onto Aldis. Aldis powered through an armbar into a slam, and took control of the match. Some power moves on the smaller Gordon. While Flip tried some aerial moves, but Aldis countered with his strength (catching Flip each time, then hitting a high impact move).

Channeling his inner Ric Flair, Aldis put Flip in the figure four, but Flip eventually reverses it. Flip regains control, and hits a sweet springboard spear before hitting a moonsault for two. Flip went to the top one time too many though, and Aldis crotched him before trying a German Superplex. Flip was able to land on his feet, but ended up getting tombstoned after another high risk move. Gordon hit some kicks then applied a crossface. Aldis made it to the ropes, and they get into a slugfest. The crowd is totally behind Flip. Aldis went for a sharpshooter, but Flip did something to Aldis' fingers, forcing him to break the hold. Two Star Spangled Stunners can't get the job done. Gordon tried a roll up from the top rope, but Aldis was able to drop to his knees and pin Gordon to retain the belt.

This was a good match, but still second to Kay vs Rosa. So Aldis can dictate terms when dealing with RoH or Marty, meaning Marty will be at Aldis' mercy when it comes time to set up a title match.

Main event time! Murdoch vs Starks for the tv title! Murdoch is hurt. His arm & ribs took a beating in his two previous matches. His chest was all red from his fight with Maff. Starks looked fine. No time limit for the finals. They mention the last champion was Jim Duggan. Murdoch tried to keep the pace slow, but Starks does his best to use his speed to get an advantage. They did a test of strength, which Murdoch easily won. Outside Murdoch working Starks over, but he gets a kick to Murdoch's ribs as he was being thrown back into the ring. Murdoch regained control by using his size and strength to counter Starks high flying, and Starks almost got counted out.

Murdoch put the boots to Starks in the corner, then gave him some hard slaps. Starks got fired up, but Murdoch countered his attempt at a high risk move, and dumped him to the floor. There's no mat, and Starks landed on his face (he was holding his nose, making me wonder if he broke it). Back in the ring, Starks messed up a corkscrew DDT, and ate a stiff lariat. Crowd equally divided between both men. Fighting on the top turnbuckle, Starks drops down and hits a powerbomb for a two count. Stroke attempted countered, but Starks hit a speak. Second attempt at the Stroke connects, and Starks has won the TV title! Ok for a David vs Goliath type match, but coming after Aldis/Gordon, it didn't really impress as much (given the talent of those two).

Having 3 rounds of the TV title tournament, even with the shorter time limit for most of the matches kind of took away from the show. 3 Quarterfinal, 2 semfinal, and the finals meant 6 matches of the tournament on one show. Then you had the other four titles defended as well. Even at less than 2 1/2 hours, it felt a bit much.

Having said that, the match quality was am improvement over Into the Fire. No matches that made no sense being on ppv (like Tasha Steelz making her debut there with no prior buildup). I think the quarterfinals should have been on Powerrr though, and have the semi-finals last longer. They could have also given more time for the Aldis/Gordon match. Steiner vs Stevens was still a dud. I used to love watching him wrestle, but now, it always feels one sided. I still think they have a ways to go with their ppvs, but at least they are learning from their mistakes, and you can see the improvement here.

I hope this revived relationship with the NWA allows more RoH competitors to compete on Powerrr. Hell, I'd love to see NWA work with NJPW again through RoH. The thought of Aldis facing Tanahashi would be awesome.

Best match of the night: Kay vs Rosa
Worst match of the night: Steiner vs Stevens
MVP of the ppv: Trevor Murdoch for wrestling 3 matches against 3 opponents.

Tomorrow night is Dark & Powerrr again!
 
AEW Dark this week has 3 matches. The opening match was a tables match between Nyla Rose & Shanna. Decent match between the two. Post match, Nyla went to powerbomb Shanna through a table, but Sadie Gibbs made the save. She ate the table instead after missing a Space Flying Tiger Drop to the floor. I'm glad they have Nyla doing something while she is out of the title picture. This was filmed at Bash on the Beach 2 weeks ago.

Kip Sabian takes on QT Marshal on Jericho's cruise. I remember QT being a heel in Ring of Honor before he had to retire before. He did one heel match in AEW, but has since been a face after teaming with Cody against Butcher & The Blade. He actually performs better now than he did then, but like Brandon Cutler, he's just high quality enhancement talent. Sabian's stock has risen since pairing with Penelope Ford, who loves to interject herself in his matches. Feuding with Joey Janela has helped too. Another decent, but short match. Tomorrow he takes on Cody on Dynamite. Also, more on Sabian at the end of this post.

The main event was The Dark Order vs Brandon Cutler & Sonny Kiss. I love Cutlers ring attire, and he even rolled a red D20 at the top of the ramp! Tony asked Excalibur to explain what a D20 was, and JR was giving them shit. That was pretty funny. Dark Order came to the ring with just Alex Reynolds & John Silver, who donned custom Creeper masks after they entered the ring. Sonny played the face in peril the entire match. More creepers showed up post match, but no beat down.

So I posted that AEW Dark was going to be the second show on TNT. I saw an article that disputed that, but nothing definite has been confirmed by AEW. Dark's length has been cut in half for the last 3 - 4 weeks though. However, they post single matches to their youtube channel, and call them AEW Dark Bonus Match. This one features Kip Sabian vs Michael Nakazawa. So here it is, in all it's glory

 
NWA Powerrr is back a few days after Hard Times. A new member of the NWA Broadcast team interviews Nick Aldis, and it's Sean Mooney! He looks great. The crowd was vocal, getting Aldis to tell them to sit down and shut up. He starts off giving props to Flip Gordon, before calling him Flop for losing to him at Hard Times. Then he goes off on Marty Scurll. He made a fake news reference, and the crowd started him a coward. Aldis informs the audience that he and Scurll had a closed set face to face, and it would air at the end of the program.

Sal Rinauro joins the commentators, as he broke his arm, and can't compete. He was supposed to face Royce Issacs, but now. Andre Guhn is Royce's opponent, making his NWA debut. The crowd immediately starts a "let's go Andre" chant as Royce gets a kiss from May Valentine. Royce almost got counted out because he got distracted when he overheard Sal Rinauro state that he thought Royce has been neutered since he hooked up with Valentine.

They show a recap of Eddie Kingston talking about D'Angelo Dinero, then being put in a match with one of the Dawsons. The other Dawson comes out and they double team Eddie when the ref is distracted, and put a hurt on him. Very interesting, because I don't remember seeing the interview or match on Powerrr before. So it's pretty weird seeing it now.

A clip from Hard Times of the Women's title match before Thunder Rosa comes out for an interview. Marti & Melina come out too. Melina hogs the interview, and the crowd is booing like crazy. Kyle Davis announces that next week, Allisyn Kay gets her rematch. Thunder finally talks and cuts a great promo. There seems a little dissension between Rosa and Melina. Given her popularity, I can see them planting the seeds for Rosa turning face.

They show Scurll waiting for Aldis on tape, and he complains he's been waiting 20 minutes all ready. Clips of Ricky Starks 3 matches at the ppv. Starks comes out for an interview with Marquez. Starks gives props to his 3 opponents before talking about the history of the the belt he now holds. He also says he expects to be defending the belt pretty much every week. He goes on about how many different ways being on tv exists today.He calls out Zicky Dice for a chat. Dice congratulates the champ before claiming he would be champ if not for them bringing in some freak from outside the NWA. He then goes off about how much he spent on his glasses, his ear feather and fanny pack. Starks runs Dice down, and we have a tv title match! I gotta say, both men played well of each other. Starks has been growing on me (I've been very vocal on how I found him a cruiserweight Rock-lite wannabe in the past), and Dice tries too hard with his 80's style gimmick. Looks like the 6:05 time limit is still in effect, and Joe and Stu mention that there is a lucky 7 rule (if you win 7 matches in a row, including time limit draws, you get a shot at the world champion) in effect for the tv title. This was a fun match, and both men looked good. I guess both of them are growing on me.

As Starks heads to the back, Drake & Storm are out for an interview. They get interrupted by Aron Stevens and Question Mark. Storm started cutting bad puns on Stevens, leaving even Drake speechless. Stevens just stood there shaking his head in disbelief. This was a hilarious segment. Stevens starts running his mouth again, and out comes Trevor Murdoch. He says he went through hell at Hard Times, but the better man run. He puts over Starks as a fighting champion. He tells Stevens he's not, because he runs away. He then says he went to the NWA, and next week, Stevens has to defend his title against him! Question mark cheap shots him, but Drake & Storm (who were sitting in the crowd during the segment) run over to keep Stevens from hurting Murdoch further. Man, this was such a great segment. Drake & Storm have the crowd eating out of their hand, and are hilarious. Stevens makes a great foil for them too. Adding Murdoch to the mix was fun. I like how organic the story building is here. Stevens wants all the gold, but he still has to defend the National Title. When they are on building angles, they are so on. Which leads to the final segment. Spoilers again!

They show Scurll again, replaying what was shown earlier, but now we have the full sitdown. Aldis comes out quietly, and sits next to Marty. He makes this impassioned presentation that he's worked so hard like Marty has, and they are close friends, and now Marty wants to take what defines Aldis as a wrestler. Aldis is clearly emotional, and the sense of betrayal he feels from Marty wanting to challenge him again is evident.

Marty on the other hand, is calm and collected. He points out Nick was TNA champion while he was still in obscurity in England. He says fans keep telling him he should have won at Crocket Cup last year, and he knows he can beat Aldis. Aldis counters that he made Marty tap, but Marty says he knows Nick isn't satisfied with how the match ended. It's not personal, it's just business. He doesn't care about money. He says give him one more shot, and Nick can keep all the money for the match. Nick says ok, we'll do it at the Crockett Cup (which has no location as of yet), but Nick dictates the terms. He says since Marty has money, and is greedy wanting another match, if he loses, Marty has to cut a check large enough to refund every fan in whatever arena the Crockett Cup ends up in. Marty looks hesitant, shaking his head before Nick leaves. This was a great, somber segment. Aldis is the bad guy, but he presented himself as someone being betrayed by a long time friend. Aldis is so good at this. Coming off emotional when he's normally calm and collected was a great touch. Marty being all about this being just business was good too. They play well off each other. Their match last year was really good, so I expect the rematch will also. They've got at least 2 months to build up this match, so it will be interesting to see where it goes
 
I think I'm going create an NPC named Tope Suicida, and whenever he comes into play, I'll announce his name with the same enthusiasm that Excalibur has when he calls the move.
 
Sorry I skipped my reviews for Dynamite/NXT last week. Work was kind of hectic, so I didn't have time to put something together. I haven't seen this week's shows yet (I only just watched Dark, and Powerrr yesterday). I might take a break on reviewing them for a bit, though I will review Takeover Portland (as I'll be there live). It's kind of tough keeping up on reviewing 4 shows each week lol
 
The magical girl, Yuka Sakazaki, is back this week! I hope she sticks around, I like her fighting style and she's so expressive in the ring with the way she exaggerates every motion.
 
Ladybird said:
The magical girl, Yuka Sakazaki, is back this week! I hope she sticks around, I like her fighting style and she's so expressive in the ring with the way she exaggerates every motion.
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Aww man, I missed that part of the show, although I've since read about what happens after the match is over.
 
I love me some good ol' fashioned wrasslin!

The last major wrestling event I saw was Wrestlemania 33 in 2017, and I know a LOT has definitely happened since then. I really need to check out AEW and see WWE's newer episodes of Raw, NXT, and Smackdown, especially since they had a new a brand split.

Now that AEW is around to offer WWE some serious actual competition, I'm hoping we can get a new boom period like we had in the 90's when WWF was competing with WCW and ECW.

On another note, this video may be one of those YTP mashup parodies but I still think it is one of the greatest promos that Hulk Hogan ever cut in the history of mankind....

 
Another promotion to keep an eye on is MLW (Major League Wrestling). They are on a channel called BeIn, but post all episodes to Youtube. Word is they might be getting a deal with a better channel (Showtime is one possible option). Davey Boy Smith Jr & Brian Pillman Jr, along with Kevin Von Erich's sons are some of their stars. They had MJF, but he's AEW full time now. Simon Gotch (formerly of the Vaudevillains in WWE) is one of the main heels, as is Tom Lawlor and Low Ki. LA Park (the original La Parka in WCW) is there too. They have deals with Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan (though they got bought out by DDT, and word is DDT might be making a deal with WWE) and AAA.

Speaking of NXT, I finally watched Wednesdays episode. Charlotte Flair got a comeuppance from Belair & Ripley, and I was happy to see it! We got at least one more Takeover match set up here, as Dominik Djakovic beat Killian Dain to finally get his shot at Keith Lee and the North American title. So far, the matches at Takeover Portland are as follows: Cole vs Ciampa for the NXT title, Belair vs Ripley for the Women's title, Lee vs Djakovic for the NA title, UE vs Broserweights for the tag titles, Nox vs Kai in a street fight, and Balor vs Gargano. They moved the start time to 3:30 pm (originally it was 4), and I'm hoping they do a pre-show. I want to see Angel Garza face Jordan 1 on 1 for the CW title, and now that Velveteen Dream is back, he needs Roderick Strong 1 on 1 as well (so all of UE is involved). It looks to be a killer show as is. I'm hoping Charlotte shows up to help continue to road to Wrestlemania with Ripley.

Oh yeah, and Velveteen Dream is back! I know, I mentioned it above, but it bears repeating. Velveteen Dream is back!

So the show was pretty good. Garza took on Swerve, Devlin defended the CW belt against Prince Pretty, Mercedes Martinez dominated Kacey, and UE took on Ciampa & The Broserweights in a great six man tag. UE were douches, beating up people backstage looking for Ciampa. Of note were Kushida & Bronson Reed. Methinks those two will hopefully team up take on UE down the road. Since Shelly is back doing stuff with RoH, I guess the Timesplitters reunion was a one off. Too bad.

I'm starting to cool on AEW. The Dark Order & Nightmare Collective stuff bores me. Cody/MJF isn't doing much for me after the initial coolness of MJF turning on Cody. Thankfully, Hangman Page is killing it with his new attitude. When he showed up to help YB, handed Matt his beer, hit his buckshot lariat on someone, took his beer back and left was priceless!

Doc Sammy Doc Sammy: You should check out the NWA on youtube. It was so-so to start, but they are improving, and this feud they are building between champion Nick Aldis and Marty Scurll has been pretty good.
 
I've seen speculation that Tony Khan is doing a lot more AEW booking this year, and it's being taken well; apparently the Page angle is all his. I think they're drawing some storylines out a bit too long, but overall the show is settling in well. You can see improvements each week as they react to criticism.

I kinda agree about some of the feuds being a bit dull, but I'd put issues with Cody / MJF and Moxley / Inner Circle partly being due to AEW's PPV schedule. They started building them a bit too early, and now they're dragging because they can't come to a head until Revolution but they're also too big to not do something with every week, so that's a chunk of runtime already spent basically running in place.
 
Yeah, the quarterly PPV schedule, while not inherently a bad thing, in some ways hinders some of the storyline pacing. For example, I thought the MJF turn on Cody came a bit too soon - I really liked the dynamic of a heel working with the faces - but if they had waited for the upcoming PPV it probably would have dragged on too long.
 
yeah, I had read that Khan took over booking more after that Dark Order debacle following the SCU/Bucks tag title match. They even turned the one guy not hitting with his punches into part of the DO storyline, which was a nice touch. My main thing with MJF/Cody is they set something up, then state we'll find out their answer next week. Worse, Butcher & Blade have been booked as jokes so far. They don't win (save the one match vs Cody & QT). Which would be fine if they were just trying to take out their opponents, but so far, they keep wrestling a regular style match. If they're hired guns, have them act like hired guns. Try taking someone out, not just wrestling them. They're a good team, but they're used badly. They should be booked to look like badasses even if they lost their matches. So far, I'm not seeing that.

I haven't gotten too far into last weeks dynamite yet, but I should finish it soon. Not looking forward to seeing Cody get lashed
 
Ladybird said:
The Nightmare Collective is apparently finished! So that's not a thing any more.

I will say, though, I love their tshirt. It's very aesthetic, but also not obviously wrestling merch.
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Huh. Although I wasn't really into that storyline, I am kinda disappointed we never got to see it go anywhere. And, yeah, that is a pretty sweet shirt.
 
Only had time to watch the first half of Dynamite last night, but the Women's Title match (Riho vs Nyla) was another good one - those two work really well together in the ring.

This year should be good for Nyla; with Awesome Kong looking unlikely to really do anything now, she can fill the "monster heel" role in the division.
 
Did anyone else read all the backlash JR got for calling Nyla the "King" of the Mountain? He's handled it with class so far, but there are idiots who think he intentionally slandered Nyla and want him cut from the broadcast team over it.

I'm sad they misused Kong before she had to go film Glow again. I have no clue what they're gonna do with Mel now, but it looks like Luther is setting his sights on Jimmy Havoc
 
Fun fact, Nyla Rose is the first American to hold an AEW singles belt.

urbwar said:
Did anyone else read all the backlash JR got for calling Nyla the "King" of the Mountain? He's handled it with class so far, but there are idiots who think he intentionally slandered Nyla and want him cut from the broadcast team over it.
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I totally get why some people are upset. A small but unfortunately vocal chunk of the AEW fanbase have An Opinion about Nyla, and that puts you on edge if you have anything in common with her. I don't follow AEW's social media because frankly interacting with that segment (Even thought it is a very small segment) of the fanbase upsets me; I have much respect for her for coping with it.

But. When I heard JR say it I thought "ooh, that's some clumsy wording", but... that's about it. None of commentary have shown any signs of being shitty towards her. Nyla's told people to chill about it herself. The impression I get from AEW management is that they're genuine in their attempts at equality and that Nyla is there because she's earned her spot, not as a diversity hire; intentionally misgendering her in the broadcast script wouldn't have been signed off. I think JR's just old, not quite as sharp as he once was, and fell back on one of his stock phrases. Sometimes it is a genuine error.

I'm sad they misused Kong before she had to go film Glow again. I have no clue what they're gonna do with Mel now, but it looks like Luther is setting his sights on Jimmy Havoc
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It'll be difficult to fit Mel in, because they already have plenty of middleweight women (Statlander, Swole, Shida, Priestley, Sakura) and she hasn't had the time to build a character yet. I hope they find something for her, because she wasn't at fault for the storyline going badly; she'd be a decent start for a female part of the Dark Order.
 
urbwar said:
I'm sad they misused Kong before she had to go film Glow again.
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I'm normally all about the athleticism, but I confess I really want to see a Nyla/Kong match, where they just tear into each other, and destroy anything and everything that gets between them.
 
Ladybird said:
Fun fact, Nyla Rose is the first American to hold an AEW singles belt.
Click to expand...

She's also Native American, according to wikipedia. I looked her up after reading some comments on a wrestling news site where they kept calling her a cholo. I didn't think she was hispanic, so I decided to find out for myself.


Ladybird said:
I totally get why some people are upset. A small but unfortunately vocal chunk of the AEW fanbase have An Opinion about Nyla, and that puts you on edge if you have anything in common with her. I don't follow AEW's social media because frankly interacting with that segment (Even thought it is a very small segment) of the fanbase upsets me; I have much respect for her for coping with it.

But. When I heard JR say it I thought "ooh, that's some clumsy wording", but... that's about it. None of commentary have shown any signs of being shitty towards her. Nyla's told people to chill about it herself. The impression I get from AEW management is that they're genuine in their attempts at equality and that Nyla is there because she's earned her spot, not as a diversity hire; intentionally misgendering her in the broadcast script wouldn't have been signed off. I think JR's just old, not quite as sharp as he once was, and fell back on one of his stock phrases. Sometimes it is a genuine error.
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Yeah, some people said they quit AEW over her winning. She really rips into people who fuck with her online (the article I read about JR showed one of her responses to someone claiming she's a man, which is what led to the cholo comments). If the other women have no problem working with her, what some idiots think is irrelevant to me. I'm not the biggest fan of her in ring work, but she's gotten better, and she's pretty good on the mike (her stint doing commentary with Excalibur on Dark one week was pretty damn good).

JR has been open that he made a mistake. However, given some of the shit he's gotten, he was right to tell one person "be thankful you never made any yourself" in a polite "fuck you" kind of way. People are giving him shit, but I bet every one of them has made a boneheaded mistake like that. I know I have. Given Nyla hasn't said anything bad about JR, I'm sure she likely understands he made a goof.

Ladybird said:
It'll be difficult to fit Mel in, because they already have plenty of middleweight women (Statlander, Swole, Shida, Priestley, Sakura) and she hasn't had the time to build a character yet. I hope they find something for her, because she wasn't at fault for the storyline going badly; she'd be a decent start for a female part of the Dark Order.
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We haven't seen Priestly since he feud with Baker. Sadie Gibbs was around when Statlander was being pushed (which seems to have suddenly faded away now too). I also don't get why they never did Kong vs Kong (aja vs awesome), when they had a confrontation at one of their ppv's. They dropped the ball on a few things last year that has me scratching my head. I hope when they get their second show on TNT, they use that and Dark to push the women more. I really want to see Baker feud with Shida, or have Priestly come back as a face now that Baker is a heel. I'm digging Baker's new heel persona. Also, isn't it funny how Chelsea Green in NXT looks almost the same as Baker now?
 
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